1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to cable assemblies, namely patching and interconnecting cables and particularly to Y-shaped connectors employing three standard RJ45 connecting plugs.
2. Related Art
There are a wide variety of connecting cables and patch cords known to the art of expanding the number of machines and devices that may be connected to a pre-wired network or other communication system. The known devices do not adequately deal with issues of cost and related issues of complexity of connection and the space requirements needed for the conventional approaches used. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,391,095 discloses a connecting block used to connect a single network cable to two separate devices. The block contains a first jack to receive the single cable. The first jack is wired to provide connections to two other jacks into which fit two respective plugs that connect to the two separate devices to be connected to the network. The principal limitation of such prior art connector is the fact that the plugs used are on patch cables that must be supplied and do take up valuable space. Accordingly, if a user has to connect between a switch panel in a cabinet and a patch panel, three patch cables would be needed in addition to the connecting block. Similarly, three patch cables and another block would be needed at the workstation where the additional devices are located. Furthermore, at both locations an additional jack must be used in the application. In summary, such a multi-jack approach of the prior art results in an excessive number of cables that are unnecessarily expensive and take up space. What is most desired is a simple, inexpensive connecting cable assembly usable in a wide variety of applications and one that minimizes the number of cables used and the space required for the cables used. None of the various plugs, jacks, and cable combinations known in the art are satisfactory.